Wednesday, 20 August 2014

First Wave

Identifying
yourself as a feminist isn’t as simple as you’d think. To some
it’s worse than stating that you vote for the BNP. Often it’s
followed by an exclamation regarding how ridiculous it is for a
sensible girl to have such notions, or a diatribe against man-hating
lesbians with hairy armpits. The media is full of articles that
reduce women and girls to the roles of victim, whore or ball-breaker.
The internet is a place that can demean, demoralise and brutalise a
person for simply identifying as a women. Feminism is under attack,
but it is also a resurgent movement that is gaining activists and
supporters.

But
the movement itself is a complex and sometimes divisive one. Rather
than being a monolithic movement, it has ebbed and flowed for almost
two centuries, with periods of prominence and notoriety, and periods
of comparative quiet. It is a movement that has experienced different
rates of success in different countries at different times. And like
all movements it reflects the concerns of women the time so that,
looking back, we can see just how far we have come and how far we
have to go.

These
(very) brief guides to feminism will introduce both you and I to the
history, good and bad, of the movement to which we belong.

First
up are the waves, and for obvious reasons, we start with the first.

This
period covers the beginning of Feminism as a political movement in
Europe and Northern America, rather than a literary or philosophical
one. Figures like Catherine di Pizan in the 14th Century,
Aphra Benn and Sophia Elisbet Brenner in the 15th Century,
and Mary Wollenstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges in the 18th
century had published feminist literature and advocated woman’s
rights, but political activism had not really taken root until the
mid 19th Century. It began with a focus on suffrage (the
right to vote), and what are sometimes called legal disabilities,
which means discrimination that is enshrined in law by either fact or
omission e.g woman were not allowed to own property. Dedicated groups
were established to focus efforts on changing the law.

The
main platforms for these groups were enfranchisement, political
representation, and worker’s rights. Success varied hugely with
legislation often being piecemeal, especially in the US and Canada
where the federal structure of government made sweeping legislation
more difficult. But soon the movement began to chalk up small
victories such as laws on property ownership, entrance to higher
education institutions and employment rights for working women.

In
the first decades of the twentieth century militant suffrage would
come to dominate the headlines, causing outrage and inspiration in
equal measure. In England the notorious Cat and Mouse Act, which
allowed the authorities to release suffragettes made weak by hunger
strikes only to re-arrest them once they recovered, was topped only
by the horrors of force-feeding in prison cells. Emily Wilding
Davies’ death at the feet of the King’s horse at Epsom in 1913
and acts of vandalism like thefamous
slashing of a painting of a female nude with a meat cleaver
kept women’s rights in the public eye, not to mention Mary
Leigh throwing a hatchet at PM Herbert Asquith. In 1913 militant
suffragettes caused £54,000 worth of damage - equivalent to about £4
million today.

But
it would be the devastating impact of the First World War that would
help bring the First Wave of Feminism to its end. As a result of
conscription and the length of wartime action, women took on the
burden of work previously unavailable to them, taking their father’s,
brother’s and husband’s places in offices, factories and fields.
All of this helped to reorient (enough of) the political elite's
attitude towards women’s rights and enfranchisement to see real and
radical change implemented. Again this change would vary in its depth
and scope, France for example would fall behind in allowing women
full enfranchisement (they had to wait until 1944) but it would lead
the way in allowing women to practise law.

The
first wave of feminism saw the accomplishment of several significant
legal steps towards equality, including the right to vote, gain a
degree, and enter the workplace. A new generation of feminists would
soon pick up the baton, seeking to address inequalities in the home,
workplace and within our own cultural life.

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